IT SEEMS that Matthew Laverack is confused over the status of the former nurses’ homes when discussing the debt of York and North Yorkshire Primary Care Trust (Letters, June 26).

These buildings are owned by York Foundation Hospital Trust, not the PCT, who have their own financing stream.

As I have said on a number of occasions in this publication, the council has worked with the hospital to bring these buildings back in to use, including by using property guardians – that is people who would live in the buildings and act as security.

Survey work found the buildings unfit for habitation and the cost of refit would have been prohibitive.

If they could have been brought back into use, they would have been.

Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing, Cabinet member for health housing and adult social services, Salisbury Road, York.